The practice of medicine, medical
tests, treatment and public health using mobile devices is termed as mHealth.There
are lot of business opportunities also in healthcare management using mHealth.
The wireless mobile devices which
are used in healthcare includes mobile monitors which are worn by patients as
well as the smartphones used by Health Care Providers (HCP), Field Nurses, MRs,
Doctors , Nurses and Pathology/Lab assistants to communicate information.
The maximum use of mobile can
increase health access to those people also who can not easily get the services
due to many reasons as who can’t pay fees of costly doctors or hospitals again
and again or who are in remote places.In current emerging market doctors are
promoting patients to use mHealth . mHealth is actually more beneficial for
patients and now a days patients are understanding the benefits of mHealth.Patients
believe that mHealth offers them easy access to medical health service
providers as well as reduces their own healthcare costs.Patients who have
chronic diseases like diabetes are better informed about mHealth. They like
more to be using mHealth services.
Use of advance high speed
processors in mobile device has increased the computing process of mobile
device and storage is also not a issue in the mobile devices. Now a days mobile
devices are very user friendly. So high speed computing power, high storage and
better user experience has render mobile device the best solution for better
healthcare management, for example in case of diagnosis, medical adherence,
monitoring of chronic conditions.
There are lot of opportunities for
business, but there are some challenges also in mobile health business as data
security, lack of trained staff who can support mobile health systems. This is
a challenge for hospitals to share hospital data base for mobile health
solutions. There is need of huge no of trained staff who understand IT and
healthcare management, so that they should be able to support mobile health
system efficiently and in broader area.
Technology is not key challenge
for mobile health, but to serve the people better, there is a huge potential
for further development of mobile health, using innovative solutions. Patient
can connect the test device with his mobile and he can provide the test sample
to test device, connected mobile device can send the data to labs and labs can
analyze the data and transfer the results to doctors in the format which doctor
can understand, now doctors can diagnose the patient by seeing the
result and inform to patient for diagnosis. Patient can get the diagnosis
result without going to labs/doctors. So the diagnosis process is very fast
using peripheral devices, but the peripheral device should be low cost , so
that patient should be easily ready to afford the cost for same.
There are a plenty of mHealth
applications which are available in market and these existing mHealth
applications have shown that the combined use of a wireless network and
connected devices can increase the reachability of healthcare platform, but
still innovative solutions are required.
Top mHealth Apps Rated by Doctors
Weight Watchers Mobile by
Weight Watchers International (iOS and Android)
White Noise Lite by TMSoft (iOS and Android)
Lose It! by FitNow (iOS and Android)
First Aid by American Red Cross (iOS and Android)
RunKeeper by FitnessKeeper (iOS and Android)
Emergency First Aid & Treatment Guide by Phoneflips (iOS and Android)
Instant Heart Rate by Azumio (iOS and Android)
Fooducate by Fooducate (iOS and Android)
Glucose Buddy by Azumio (iOS and Android)
Pocket First Aid & CPR by Jive Media (iOS and Android)
Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal.com (iOS)
Stroke Riskometer by Autel (iOS)
DiabetesScS by Choices & Patterns Inc. (iOS)
White Noise Lite by TMSoft (iOS and Android)
Lose It! by FitNow (iOS and Android)
First Aid by American Red Cross (iOS and Android)
RunKeeper by FitnessKeeper (iOS and Android)
Emergency First Aid & Treatment Guide by Phoneflips (iOS and Android)
Instant Heart Rate by Azumio (iOS and Android)
Fooducate by Fooducate (iOS and Android)
Glucose Buddy by Azumio (iOS and Android)
Pocket First Aid & CPR by Jive Media (iOS and Android)
Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal.com (iOS)
Stroke Riskometer by Autel (iOS)
DiabetesScS by Choices & Patterns Inc. (iOS)
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